Native Americans Mourn Loss of Land With "Unthanksgiving" Rite

Netscape News via Drudge ^ | 11/24/2005 | AFP

[lainie]

ALCATRAZ ISLAND, United States (AFP) - A tribal chant rose from a thousands-strong prayer circle on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay as Native Americans held a sunrise "Unthanksgiving Day" ceremony.

"What we call it is Unthanksgiving," Bear Lincoln of the Wailikie Tribe told AFP as he waved burning sage to purify the area and ward off evil spirits.

"It was the saddest day for us. It was a big mistake for us to help the Pilgrims survive that first winter. They betrayed us once they got their strength."

Traditional Thanksgiving feasting in the United States is a tribute to the meal the original European Pilgrims shared with the Native Americans who helped them survive in the new land.

An estimated 3,000 people packed onto ferries that set out from Fisherman's Wharf for Alcatraz in the pre-dawn darkness Thursday, according to organizers.

A bonfire blazed at the center of a prayer circle set up on a bluff beneath the Alcatraz lighthouse. And at the base of the rock wall leading up to the ruins of the former federal prison were a pair of Indian teepees.

"Ultimately, this is their land," said Irma Pinedo, a Mexico City native who was among the Aztec dancers taking part in the ceremony. "For us, no turkey today."

Turkey, which nearly became the national bird in the United States instead of the eagle, is the main course at traditional Thanksgiving dinners.

"I take my children to this every year because I want them to understand there is another side to the story," said 41-year-old Erin Alexander, who added that the event has grown significantly since she began attending 12 years ago.

[U S Army EOD]

I have a lot of local records here in Georgia where I live to back up what I am saying. In the South, during the American Revolution, the war was probably closer to a civil war than it was a revolution. There were many, many loyalist and the local Indians here were among them. Even during the war of 1812, the Creeks still trusted the Crown and looked down on the "Americans" at that time as being a bunch of low life, dishonorable people.

An interesting note with my mother. She was raise in the 1930's South as a high class white woman. When she and my father were stationed in California during WWII. There was one hotel who would not let them in due to her dark skin color and native American facial features. Her brother, who was in the Navy was basically adopted by a West Coast tribe who use to take him fishing all the time when he was out there.

[muawiyah]

The "X-gene" is found in North American Indians, North Africans and to a lesser degree, throughout Europe.

The European progenitors of those guys with the X-gene could have walked here, but odds are best they took boats.

American Indians continued to use boats. They still have them.

Where ever did you get the idea this technology was abandoned?

[muawiyah]

BTW, DNA does not, in and ov itself, suggest the means of transport.

[U S Army EOD]

From where??

[fso301]

Certainly everybody should be concerned for the plight of those poor slaves.

In these times, we must not do anything that causes us to remember that Indians also kept slaves.

[Cleburne]

The major tribes of the Southeast adapted quite readily to 'civilization,' particularly the Cherokee in the Southeastern Appalachians, who drafted a Consitution, had their own alphabet, and were advancing economically until white settlers employed the Federal Government to confiscate their land and move them to Oklahoma. They emulated European technology and culture extensively, ranging from log cabins for dwellings to the adoption of African slavery- one of those wonderful civilized aspects of European rule.

And that's just the Southeastern tribes with which I am somewhat familiar. But even if the native peoples were 'Neolithic' it hardly justifies commiting attrocities and forcibly taking their land.

[Zack Nguyen]

Any time one of these stories is posted about some Indians who subscribe to the leftist viewpoint, we have our share here who spout just as much ignorance; i.e. that all Indians are "fat, lazy" and live off of casinos, or that all were nomadic tribes.

We have failed the Indians because we trusted in socialism to be their salvation, so we allow them to live on tribal lands and give them fattening unhealthy surplus food. They are terribly poor so our legislators allow them to build casinos on their land. But little of the money actually makes it to the tribe, they continue to drop out of school at shocking rates, and unemployment is high.

Then of course we are shocked when socialism doesn't work and we still have a sizable population that has lived with us for hundreds of years but has never really integrated into American society.

It makes me angry - none of it had to happen. Socialism is as destructive as a hurriacane. It only takes longer.

[muawiyah]

The point was Thor Hyerdahl used some pretty primitive materials and techniques to travel in open ocean for vast distances.

Whether or not those methods were used is not the question, and there are plenty of arguments why it was absolutely impossible for Hyerdahl to have done what he did anyway.

However, the Haida and other West Coast Indians used some doggone big boats to go out whale hunting! Gulf Coast Indians made large boats and so did the Caribe.

We also know the Chinese made very large boats and if they'd wished could have sailed directly over the Pacific to the West Coast at any time in the preceding 3700 years!

[U S Army EOD]

Andrew Jackson did the same thing to the Creeks after the War of 1812.

[TaMoDee]

And so if it all could have been done over what would be your approved view of the correct sequence of events?

[U S Army EOD]

But that could have been outside influence if someone came over from Northern Africa or the Middle East. Very, very possible.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***Anyone who actually believes that should repeat the 3rd grade.***

Check my post and you will see I was quoting someone else and answered about something else.

I know also of the Treaty of New Echota, the kidnapping of the delegates, the removal and the wave of murders that swept Oklahoma as Cherokee killed Cherokee in revenge over this.

[muawiyah]

Columbus reported seeing some dead guys in a small boat near Iceland (where he went to pick up wool to take to Italy or Turkey to be carded or to be made into rugs).

This was not exactly "common", but it happened often enough to be recorded ~ and considering the primitiveness of life in that period, there was some level of regular traffic from East to West in the North Atlantic.

Some analysts suggest these were merely Eskimos. Still, not all these reports involve "leather boats". Bering Strait is supposed to be a tad rougher to navigate in small boats than the North Atlantic though.

[ItsForTheChildren]

Don't let the facts get in the way of a perfectly good whine.

[U S Army EOD]

If they did, where did they come from? The only place possible to do that is from Africa to South and Cental America if you can't sail against the wind.

[muawiyah]

A similar problem was the case for a very long time in the South Carolina Tidewater. Folks there continued to feel a British affinity down to as recently 2004. I understand they've recently begun to give up on it.

[ConorMacNessa]

Yet this healthy, stable, benign agrarian society fell to the infirm Europeans - go figure.

[fso301]

even if the native peoples were 'Neolithic' it hardly justifies commiting attrocities and forcibly taking their land.

The indians weren't referred to in the Declaration of Independance as being "merciless savages" for no good reason.

In that era, life was hard. People weren't interested in endless legal wranglings over who did what when and in violation of which laws.

[U S Army EOD]

This is the trip I made on my boat. It is a very easy trip.

I read a book once about a guy on the same route who had problems with his boat. He got into a raft that was tied on to the boat. The line broke and the boat took off with out him. The boat beat him to Central America by about two or three weeks.

[muawiyah]

Where did the boats come from, or the people? The people are from various places in the Old World. No doubt there were whites, blacks and others.

The Land Bridge hypothesis says that everybody had to come overland to America. This begs the question about how Australian natives got here since they'd have had to have sailed 75% of the distance and then abandoned their boats to walk that last few 4000 miles to Baja.

Actually, it's totally ridiculous to even suggest that the earliest settlers of the Americans forgot to bring their boats!